Tuesday 13 March 2012

Latest from the Afghanistan massacre


At last, here is a report that does not take for granted the official version of one soldier perpertrating a masacre - going from house to house killing its inhabitants.
‘Several drunk troops behind bloodbath, laughed on shooting-spree, burned corpses’
Gruesome new details are surfacing after 16 Afghan villagers including nine children were shot in their houses by at least one US serviceman. Witnesses to the atrocity now say that several drunken American soldiers were involved.




12 March, 2012


Neighbors at the village where the killings took place said they were awoken past midnight by crackling gunfire:

"They were all drunk and shooting all over the place," Reuters cites Agha Lala, a villager in Kandahar's Panjwayi district.

Lala's neighbor Haji Samad lost all of his 11 relatives in the rampage, including children and grandchildren. He claims Marines “poured chemicals over their dead bodies and burned them.”

Twenty-year-old Jan Agha says the gunfire “shook him out of bed.” He was in the epicenter of the horrible shooting, witnessing his father shot as the latter peered out of a window to see what was going on. 

"The Americans stayed in our house for a while. I was very scared," the young man told reporters.

Lying on a floor, Agha says, he pretended to be dead.

He added that his brother was shot in his head and chest. His sister was killed as well. “My mother was shot in her eye and her face. She was unrecognizable,” he said.

The Afghan parliament said the incident was barbaric and demanded justice. Both NATO and US officials condemned the violence, promising a swift investigation.

US ‘fundamental strategy’ in Afghanistan won’t change – Pentagon

The Pentagon’s chief spokesman, George Little, said on Monday that there was "every indication" that the perpetrator, whose name he refused to disclose, had not been accompanied by any other soldiers. He also said that the mass killing would not change the “basic war strategy” in Afghanistan. 

"Despite what some are saying, we’re not changing our fundamental strategy," Little said. 
Also on Monday NATO reacted to the massacre of Afghan villagers, with spokeswoman Oana Lungescu saying the shooting was an "isolated incident." She emphasized it would not affect the timeline of the previously discussed withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. 

Earlier a preliminary official report said the unnamed culprit, identified as a member of the US army staff, had acted alone and is now in custody after turning himself in at an American base.

US troops in Afghanistan have been put on high alert as the Taliban has issued a threat vowing “to take revenge from the invaders and the savage murderers for every single martyr.”
The statement published on the group’s website said that the US is “arming lunatics in Afghanistan who turn their weapons against the defenseless Afghans.”


Afghan officials, fearing possible violent demonstrations, have deployed extra police and troops in and around Kandahar.

The incident was one of the worst of its kind since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. It comes just weeks after copies of the Koran were burned at a US military base, provoking mass riots in Afghanistan.

Slaying of 16 Afghan civilians 'absolutely tragic and heartbreaking' – Barack Obama

US President Barack Obama has said during an interview with Denver TV Station KCNC that the killing of 16 Afghan civilians by a US soldier was “absolutely tragic and heartbreaking” but also noted that he was “proud generally” of what US troops had accomplished in Afghanistan while working under strenuous conditions.

In another interview, this time with Orlando-based WFTV, the president reiterated his stance in favor of a pullout from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. He said the incident “does signal the importance of us transitioning in accordance with my plans that Afghans are taking more of the initiative in security.”

Asked whether the incident could be compared to the infamous 1968 My Lai Massacre, in which US troops murdered up to 500 civilians in South Vietnam, Obama responded by saying it was not comparable. “It appeared you had a lone gunman who acted on his own,” he noted.

US defense secretary Leon Panetta said that the death penalty was a possible punishment against the soldier who perpetrated the massacre. He noted that officials will use the military justice system to try the soldier and that the shootings must not derail the military mission in Afghanistan. 

In the meantime, Reuters quoted an anonymous US official who said that the accused soldier had been treated for traumatic brain injury after being in a vehicle that rolled over in Iraq in 2010.

Mainstream coverage - BBC and al-Jazeera ..

Afghan Eyewitnesses Describe U.S. Soldier Shooting Spree






Afghan analyst on US soldier's shooting spree










Kandahar butchery: Afghans demand local justice over civilians' massacre





11 March, 2012

Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan have vowed to take revenge against "sick minded American savages" following the murderous rampage of a U.S. soldier who shot 16 Afghan civilians, including nine children.

Alarabiya reported the Taliban released a statement promising to “take revenge from the invaders and the savage murderers for every single martyr.”

Digital Journal reported the murders, which took place in Kandahar province, were committed by a rogue American soldier "just a few hundred metres from the base" in the Panjwai district.

The soldier involved is an Army staff sergeant from the Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, who served three tours in Iraq before being posted to Afghanistan. The soldier's name has not been released. He is reported as married with three children

According to France 24 the statement released by the Taliban said "The American 'terrorists' want to come up with an excuse for the perpetrator of this inhumane crime by claiming that this immoral culprit was mentally ill."

"If the perpetrators of this massacre were in fact mentally ill then this testifies to yet another moral transgression by the American military because they are arming lunatics in Afghanistan who turn their weapons against the defenceless Afghans without giving a second thought."



Kandahar butchery: Afghans demand local justice over civilians' massacre

RT 12 March, 2012
Afghanistan’s parliament has condemned the killing of 16 civilians by an American sergeant on Sunday. It demands a public trial, saying Afghans have run out of patience with how the NATO-led coalition forces are acting in the country.

The demand for a trial by an Afghan court goes against the usual practice for American military personnel serving abroad. They are immune from prosecution by local authorities and are instead tried by American military tribunals.

But Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson, spokesperson for the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan, promised on Monday that the Afghan people would receive justice.
The presence of the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) in Afghanistan has been a public relations nightmare lately, with a number of scandals erupting involving foreign soldiers over recent months.

In late February the burning of Korans and other holy Muslim scriptures at the US Bagram Air Base provoked mass rioting in the country. What was called an “inadvertent” act by the US resulted in some 40 deaths and hundreds of injured, as angry crowds demanded retribution for the desecration.

Earlier the same month a photo of a US Marine scout sniper team surfaced on the internet, provoking a scandal. The marines were posing in front of flag bearing an insignia of the SS, or Schutzstaffel, the military wing of the German Nazi Party. According to explanations, the soldiers did not realize the historical meaning of the double lightning bolt and meant it to represent “scout snipers”.

In mid-January, a video showing US Marines urinating on corpses of slain Afghans, presumably Taliban fighters, circulated on YouTube caused outrage worldwide. In at least one incident the video provoked violent retribution, when an Afghan soldier opened fire at French troops, who were part of the ISAF, killing four and wounding eight people.

Over the previous years, the ISAF troops have been engaged in sport-killing of Afghans and mistakenly killing hundreds of civilians in poorly-targeted air strikes, among other things. The war is increasingly unpopular back home, while the level of trust from Afghan population remains low.

The NATO-led coalition is now preparing for withdrawal of most its troops from Afghanistan after a decade of occupation. Apparently the invaders have failed to build a strong and self-reliant state capable of dealing with the insurgents on its own. Washington is currently in talks with the Taliban, reportedly attempting to secure safe passage out for its troops.

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